Ger van Rens received his medical training from the Catholic University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands in 1979 and his training in ophthalmology from the Royal Eye Hospital Utrecht. He received his PhD from the Nijmegen University in 1988. He joined the Department of Ophthalmology of the Elkerliek Hospital, Helmond, in 1985 and was appointed as the first Dutch professor of ophthalmology in low vision research at the Free University Medical Center Amsterdam in 2001. His research is focused on epidemiology in ophthalmology, quality of life and outcome of rehabilitation of visual impairment. He has (co)-authored more than 45 publications and supervised 7 PhD students. He is also responsible for the training of Residents in ophthalmology at the Elkeliek Hospital.

Ger served the board of the Dutch Society of Ophthalmology (NOG), the board of the Dutch Society for Rehabilitation of Visual Impairment (VRS) as president and today he represents the NOG in the International Council of Ophthalmology and is a member of the task-force group of the ICD-11 of the WHO. In 2009, he became an honoree member of the VRS.